HARTFORD, Conn. — The 10-word telegram sizzled through the Western Union wires from Hartford to Manhattan and must have dropped in like a hand grenade in the Yankees’ offices on 42nd Street.
“Gehrig no use to this ballclub. (Stop) Please recall him. (Stop)”
Yes, Gehrig was Henry Louis Gehrig, the powerful lefthanded batter, just turned 20, in whom the Yankees believed they had found another Babe Ruth. Ed Barrow, the Yankees’ president, had signed Gehrig off the campus of Columbia University two months earlier and brought him directly to the Bronx , were he played a handful of games. Then they sent him to Hartford for more seasoning, to play for Paddy O’Connor, a gruff former big league catcher.
